maxwell curve

At tonight's SPIN (software process improvement network), the speaker covered the Maxwell Curve which points out with Scrum the maximum productivity is at less hours because they work so intensely. Anybody have thoughts on whether it is the Scrum methodology that is causing the earlier peak or the more intensive focus/work. Personally, I am much more productive (if you measure on a work accomplished per day or week) if I work 40 hours vs 60 hours per week - the two peaks on the Maxwell Curve. It has nothing to do with Scrum (which we don't use) or process though. It has to do with not being so tired I can't think as fast/efficiently.

My opinions along with many others are in the Jobs Discussion thread on productivity. This thread is more about the process, causes and how it relates to the Maxwell Curve. Whereas the Jobs Discussion thread goes in a different direction.

Article: http://jeffsutherland.com/scrum/2008/09/maxwell-curve-getting-more-production.html

How was the curve plotted?

There's some interesting additional discussion on the Maxwell Curve in this blog entry:
http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2008/09/09/the-maxwell-curve-blunder-in-the-name-of-scrum/

Note comments by both Sutherland and Maxwell.

I am still in doubt where this curve comes from. There seems to be no reference

It's from the article Jeanne linked to. If you want more details about it you should ask over there; it looks like they accept comments.

done thanks!

Jeff,
That is a really interesting link. Thanks for sharing!

Even if you can discuss if the scrum graph can tend to zero (around 60 hours) it describes what is important: faster productivity using Scrum with lesser efforts.